NEW DELHI: Hamid Ansari on Tuesday won a second term as vice-president, with the support of 490 MPs, finishing far ahead of opponent Jaswant Singh who polled 238 votes. Ansari becomes the second vice-president to get another stint in office, the first being S Radhakrishnan.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said 21 members from BJD, 11 from TDP, 6 from Congress and supporting parties and two nominated members did not vote. Others who did not show up included 2 MPs each from BJP, AGP, RSP and TRS and YS Jaganmohan Reddy, one of the two members of YSR Congress.

BJP MPs who did not vote were Dilip Singh Judeo, whose mother was not well, and Shatrugan Sinha, who recently underwent a surgery. Trinamool Congress members Kakoli Dastidar and Kabir Suman and SP member Brij Bhushan Singh are out of the country.

Out of the total 790 members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha that form the electoral college for the vice-presidential poll, 3 slots are vacant following Pranab Mukherjee's election as President, Vijay Bahuguna's takeover as Uttarakhand chief minister and the setting aside of the election of BJP MP J Shanta by a high court. In all, 736 votes were polled in the election on Tuesday. Eight votes were found invalid. Cine actress Rekha and ace cricketer Sachin Tendulkar were among the nominated MPs who cast their votes on Tuesday.

Ansari, a career diplomat who was first elected as vice-president in 2007, was initially one of the two contenders for the President's post. A last minute manoeuvre by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, however, tipped the scales in favour of Pranab Mukherjee, who was declared the UPA's presidential candidate. Mukherjee was elected President last month.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi were among the early visitors to the polling booth at Parliament House. Trinamool MPs voted in favour of Ansari, a day after they attended the lunch hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for allies and outside supporters of the UPA.

For Singh, the defeat was on expected lines. With only NDA and AIADMK backing him, Singh lost to Ansari by a wide 252 votes.

Ansari's term as vice-president was largely appreciated but for his late-night decision to adjourn the Rajya Sabha sine die just ahead of voting on the Lokpal Bill in December 2011. BJP had then alleged that Ansari was trying to save the government the embarrassment of a certain defeat on the floor of the House. In fact, this was the reason cited by BJP for putting up a candidate against him in the vice-presidential poll.

Ansari has through his career as an IFS officer served in many positions, including as permanent representative of India to the United Nations, Indian high commissioner to Australia and ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1961.

A Padma Shree awardee, Ansari was vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University from May 2000 to March 2002. He was subsequently nominated as chairman National Commission for Minorities, and is credited with ensuring compensation to the victims of the Gujarat riots.

Ansari was born in Calcutta on April 1, 1937. He did his schooling at St Edwards High School in Shimla, attended the St. Xavier's College, University of Calcutta, and pursued MA in Political Science at the Aligarh Muslim University, where he also got his doctorate degree and worked as a lecturer.

Ansari is the grand-nephew of former Congress president Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, a leader of the Indian independence movement. A West Asia expert, he has authored a book titled 'Travelling Through Conflict', besides writing on Palestine, Iraq and Iran.